General Question

My g/f just broke off a piece of her molar. She already had a root canal done on that tooth and had a temporary filling (been there for awhile). If she can't get a crown in the next month of so, is she in trouble?

She is in trouble indeed. Sad to say, but when a person cannot afford full treatment of a root canaled tooth, the best thing is to pull the tooth. A root canal means the tooth has no blood supply and no innervation. It is like a dead tree branch, very brittle. It must be crowned. Two years is a very long time for a temporary fillling. Some of the worst infections I’ve ever seen have been in teeth like these. If it is an upper tooth, the danger is particularly great because the sinuses communicate with the roots of upper molars. It can lead to meningitis and brain infections. Dental infections are notoriously hard to treat. After this length of time, there is usually nothing left to crown. She needs to go in and get it pulled. It has been too long.

@jaytkay Dental care is not part of Medicare in Canada (except for children). We arrange our own dental insurance, which is usually offered by the employer or school. Consequently, I also have friends who are saving up to put crowns in.

I pay for my own insurance, which does now include some dental. For most of my life my health insurance which I funded myself did not cover any dental so I simply paid my own bills. I never expected the government to pay for me.

No, rooey. Government health insurance is simply insurance. Just like your private health insurance. Except without Wall Street skimming off a huge percentage. And the larger insurance pool makes it less expensive.

Yep that is true for those of us who pay taxes. The health care system here is better than nothing but capitalism still reigns, the better doctors/dentists don’t bulk bill. You have to go where you can and wait until they have time for you. I pay for my own private health insurance every month.

I guess it all depends upon your age. My parents and grandparents payed their own health care and dental costs. The taxes they paid built roads and bridges, infrastructure is the word in favor at the moment.

Whenever I hear someone saying the government should pay this and provide that, I think of JFK and his speech, ask not what your country can do for you, rather what you can do for your country.

I don’t think of it in terms of “the government should provide X for me”, the way I keep hearing American conservatives talk about it. It’s not a gift. There are some very basic services that every person in the country needs on some level, and in a large country you can assume that some proportion will not be able to provide those services for themselves, for any number of reasons. So it makes sense for the government to organize those services, which we all then pay for to the degree that we can, and everyone benefits.

@snowberry No… I think you misunderstood me. I just meant that I am forever hearing American conservatives say that liberals want the government to provide everything. That is not actually how I think about it, and I would guess that most liberals do not think that way either. It is a misrepresentation.